There's No Need to Change
by AmazingArekusa
Summary: Hermione has begun to feel too plain compared to everyone else.


House: Slytherin

Category: Short

Prompt: Blue Hair Ribbon

Word Count: 930

Hermione sighed. She looked at her reflection. Her tired eyes from studying the night before stared back at her, accompanied with unkempt and rebellious hair. She tilted her head from side to side, trying to look at herself from different angles.

"Oh, please, Hermione. You've never been like this before," she whispered to herself. "You can't change how you look, so might as well just go on with your day." She gave up, finally heading down to breakfast after about 5 hours of staring at herself.

As she entered the Great Hall, she began to notice everything unique about the girls there. One had a necklace with, what she assumed was, a birthstone in it. Another had big, golden hoop earrings, making her have an elegant vibe. One girl's wrist was filled with what seemed like hundreds of different bracelets. And then, there was one girl who tried out different hairstyles every day. Hermione tried that too, but the only difference was that the girl actually made them look good.

Hermione sighed, feeling defeated. Here she was, as bland and plain as a girl could be. She noticed how ordinary she must've looked like. She was just another girl among the students, with the same old hairstyle and uniform, nothing really making her any different.

Hermione was staring at her plate of food, lost in thought.

"Hey, are you going to eat that?" one of her best friends, Ron, asked.

"Huh? What?" she said, slowly reacting to what he asked. "You can have it. I'm not hungry, anyway." She pushed her plate away and stood up from her seat. She did it in such a manner that made everyone stare at her. Her defense was a firm glare.

As she walked towards the entrance, she could feel someone staring at her. Instinctively, she turned to her left. Draco Malfoy had been staring at her with a stern expression. Not sure how to respond or whether or not to stare back, Hermione kept her chin up and kept walking.

The day continued on, the same as usual. She raised her hand in each class and finished her homework in record time. She was sitting at one of the corner tables when she started observing people, specifically girls. She noticed how each one of them had or wore something that made them unique. _Oh, dear. Here we go again_ , she thought. She couldn't stand to be in the bustling common room, filled with dozens of girls who actually had an idea of what they were doing.

"You are just fine, Hermione," she reassured herself. "You don't need to be like them. Besides, it must be totally boring just being one of _them_." She sighed and laid in bed. However, her head was filled with a million suggestions of what she could do to spice her appearance up.

Hermione shot up in her bed. "Aha! I know just what to do. And it's not even a big deal. No one's going to notice, and if no one even pays attention to me on a regular basis, then it won't change anything." Hermione felt clever. "Oh, Hermione. You've outdone yourself again."

The next morning, Hermione woke up, feeling the best she's been in a long while.

"Good morning, Ginny!" she said, rushing down the stairs towards the Great Hall, tying her new blue ribbon around her ponytail. She wondered if someone was going to notice the uncommon change.

Hermione sat down, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley sitting in front of her.

"What did you do to your hair?" Ron asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, umm, I just decided to fix it up a bit. You know, just to mix things up for once." She suddenly felt very self-conscious. _Snap out of it, Hermione. You've never been self-conscious before_ , she thought to herself.

She noticed Ron and Harry looked at each other with puzzled expressions, seeming as though they couldn't get used to the new look.

"Look, I don't care if you guys don't like the ribbon. I just wanted to try something new for a change," she said defensively.

"Uh, we didn't say anything," Harry started.

Hermione interrupted him. "I wouldn't expect you guys to understand, but at least don't make me doubt myself," she said, mainly staring at Ron.

She wasn't going to take any of it. She was going to feel happy that day, no matter what. Harry and Ron wouldn't understand, anyway. She didn't expect them to. She made her way out of the Great Hall, wanting to go read for a while, just to calm her nerves down.

"Granger!" someone called. Hermione turned, seeing Draco behind her.

"Malfoy?" she asked. She was clueless as to why he would want to talk to her. "What are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to tell you something." He said. Hermione crossed her arms. "I know you may not like me, and you may hate me, for all I know. But, I just wanted to say that I like the new look. I mean, you look beautiful without it, but if you like it, then I like it too." Hermione was dumbfounded at what just came out of Draco Malfoy's mouth. "But, in my opinion, natural beauty is best. Someone should like you because of you. Not some accessory." He smiled a little. Hermione realized he had good intentions.

"Thanks," she said, watching him walk back to the Great Hall. She smiled and laughed to herself. "What was I thinking?" she laughed again and took her ribbon out, leaving it on the floor.


End file.
